Hamas rejects Red Cross call for Gilad Shalit

The ICRC issued a statement:

Since Mr Shalit's capture in June 2006, the ICRC has repeatedly asked Hamas to allow the exchange of Red Cross messages between Gilad Shalit and his family. The most recent requests were made at the highest level, but these and all others have been refused.

"We welcome the fact that yesterday former US president Jimmy Carter handed Hamas a letter from Gilad Shalit's family to him," said Béatrice Mégevand-Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and North Africa. "However, this cannot replace the regular and unconditional contacts with his family that Gilad Shalit is entitled to under international humanitarian law. The ICRC regrets that in his case political considerations are judged more important than the simple humanitarian gesture of allowing a captive to be in touch with his family after three years of separation."

Repeated requests by the ICRC to visit Gilad Shalit to ascertain his conditions of detention and treatment have also been refused. Visiting people deprived of their freedom and enabling them to exchange personal news with their relatives is one of the ICRC's main humanitarian tasks.

Ms Megevand-Roggo added that the people holding Gilad Shalit were entirely responsible for ensuring that his treatment and living conditions are humane and dignified.

The ICRC has held several meetings with Gilad Shalit's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, to brief them on its efforts regarding their 22-year-old son. "We share their concerns. Despite the lack of progress so far we will continue to press for family contacts for Mr Shalit and for ICRC access to him," said Ms Mégevand-Roggo.

Hamas responded:

The de facto government in Gaza's Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs was astonished on Friday that the International Red Cross has asked Hamas to allow captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit regular contact with his family.

In a statement to Ma'an, the ministry said that the Red Cross' demand came while "Gaza prisoners have been continuously deprived family visits for more than two years, which has negatively affected their living and psychological situation."

"Under what pretext of international law is it that the Red Cross can demand that Hamas allow Shalit to contact his family?" the the de facto government ministry asked. "Did the Red Cross denounce the [Israeli] occupation for its daily violations of international law against Palestinian prisoners, who are deprived from every human right?"

"At the least, stated international conventions demand that the sick aren't denied necessary medical treatment; instead, they die slowly due to medical negligence," the statement went on to say.

The ministry also denounced international organizations' calls for better treatment of "this single Israeli captive," demanding that they show that they "care about the situation of 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, against whom everything is banned and international crimes are committed."

"Israel is continuously bypassing international conventions to legitimize crimes being committed, including the deprivation of visitations, imposing an orange uniform by force and implimenting the 'illegal combatant' law," the statement noted.

The ministry concluded by calling on the international community and human rights organizations to stop so-called double-standard policies that urge Hamas to meet demands concerning Shalit but stop at demanding Israel ease living conditions of its thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas is employing doubletalk that is even more egregious than usual. As far as I can tell, the Red Cross does not accuse Israel of any violations of prisoners' rights, although they have called for Israel to allow visits from family members.

Read More

Ma'an gets a little visit from Hamas

From Ma'an:

A delegation of Hamas leaders visited the independent Ma’an News Agency offices in Gaza City as part of efforts to develop relations between media outlets in the besieged Strip.

Ma’an’s Gaza director Imad Eid received the delegation, who related the party’s appreciation for its hard work and journalistic integrity. Eid thanked the delegation for its recognition of the news agency.

Leaders from all factions have called in recent days for news agencies affiliated with various factions end their partisan reporting and halt incitement campaigns around the issue of politically-motivated arrests.

Once upon a time, Ma'an actually reported critical stories about Hamas. Then, two years ago, Hamas started a campaign of threats and beatings against journalists, including those from Ma'an.

Ever since then, Ma'an has toned down its stories about Hamas in a very obvious way.

This story is a case in point. Hamas is not happy with any press freedoms in Gaza, and pays "visits" to journalists to remind them of what they face when they displease the de facto government. Since Hamas has recently started to increase their attacks on independent organizations, they want to ensure that those stories are being muted or silenced.

And Ma'an is happily playing along, publicly praising their tormenters.

Read More

Today's the day to buy at Trader Joe's

Tomorrow, some Israel-haters plan to "de-shelve" Israeli products sold at Trader Joe's, as we reported a while back. "De-shelving" means illegally defacing and stealing the products.

So this is the weekend to buy as many Israeli products as you can at Trader Joe's, and let them know you appreciate their standing up to the criminals and haters.

Read More

PCHR "civilian" update

Our team has just identified the 300th terrorist that the PCHR identified as a "civilian" victim during the Operation Cast Lead.

We have also identified that 186 out of the 282 policemen killed were also members of terrorist groups, nearly two-third of them.

We have identified 17 children under 18 who were also members of terror groups.

If we add all the police, militants identified by PCHR and "PCHR civilian" militants identified by us together, and if my math is right, we have identified 632 people killed who the IDF considers legitimate military targets, out of the 1410 victims that PCHR identified (subtracting PCHR duplicates.)

Even if we assume that the PCHR is not playing games by counting those who died natural deaths as victims, considering that Israel was fighting against groups who purposefully hid in civilian clothing among innocents, this is hardly "indiscriminate."

Hamas continues to add names of its Al Qassam Brigades "martyrs" to its website, five months later, showing that they were trying to hide the terrorist status of its dead fighters in order to fool the world into believing the idea that Israel was recklessly killing civilians and that Hamas didn't suffer severe losses.

Read More

Another day, another Egyptian lie

Hosni Mubarak writes a Wall Street Journal op-ed where he promises what Israel would get if it surrenders the entire West Bank, most of Jerusalem, every Jewish holy place, the entire Golan and capitulates on so-called "refugees" invading Israel:

While full normalization with Israel can only result from a comprehensive settlement including the Syrian, Lebanese as well as Palestinian track, the Arab side stands ready to reciprocate serious steps towards peace undertaken by Israel.

So let's look at how Well Egypt is performing in its promised "normalization" with Israel.

After over 30 years of "peace," it doesn't exist. While Egypt had committed to "full recognition, including diplomatic, economic and cultural relations; termination of economic boycotts and barriers to the free movement of goods and people; and mutual protection of citizens by the due process of law" in fact the level of normalization is beneath the barest minimum needed for Egypt to maintain its billions of dollars of aid that the US committed to ensure this paper "peace."

In 2006, 92% of Egyptians considered Israel to be Egypt's "worst enemy." Only this month, Egypt banned marriages between Egyptians and Arab women with Israeli citizenship. Egypt ignored the 30th anniversary of the peace agreement with Israel. Other incidents show Egypt's implacable hostility towards Israel and towards real normalization.

If this is the template for "full normalization," then it appears that Israel will gain very little from giving away everything.

Read More

Jimmy Carter consulted State Dept. before Hamas meeting

It sure looks like Obama is Jimmy Carter Jr.:

Former US President Jimmy Carter met with State Department and National Security officials before meeting Hamas leaders in the Middle East, the State Department said on Thursday.

According to a statement released by the State Department, Carter met with Near Eastern Affairs Bureau Deputy Assistant Secretary David Hale and National Security staff. This statement was made in response to a question asked at a Washington press briefing on Wednesday about Carter’s meetings with Hamas leaders in Gaza on Tuesday.

On his recent Middle East trip, Carter met the exiled chief of Hamas’ powerful Political Bureau, Khalid Mash’al in Damascus, and then met Ismail Haniyeh, the elected Palestinian Prime Minister, in Gaza. US officials had stressed that the former president held these meetings as a private citizen only.

Thursday’s announcement now confirms that there has been some official contact between Carter and the current US government vis-à-vis Middle East policy.

So there's a good chance that Carter's call for Obama to take Hamas off the terror list was a charade known by the State Department ahead of time - and possibly even by the White House, which is already thinking in that direction.

It appears that things are going to get worse.

Read More

UN blames Israel for UN impotence

This has got to be read to be believed:

(International Atomic Energy Agency chief) ElBaradei: "When Israel bombed what was claimed to be a nuclear facility, it was not only hampering our work, but it was a clear violation of international law.

"You, sir, your action is deplored by not allowing us to do what we're supposed to do under international law. You're not even a member of the (NPT) regime to tell us what to do. We would appreciate it if you stopped preaching to us."

Syria was almost finished building a secret nuclear reactor that the IAEA had no idea about. Because they kept it secret, it is a fair guess that the goal was to create nuclear weapons that would be hidden from the IAEA. If Israel hadn't bombed it, the IAEA would still not know about it. But ElBaradei is blaming Israel for hampering the IAEA's nonexistent investigation into a nuclear plant that it didn't know existed!

Israel pointed out very nicely the utter incompetence of the IAEA, and the IAEA isn't happy that they were caught flatfooted. So of course they blame the people who showed them to be impotent, rather than the people who were, you know, actually building an illegal nuclear facility.

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)

Read More

Today's PalArab news, "in other words" edition

Mahmoud Abbas is starting a tour of Arab countries, including Syria and Saudi Arabia, to try to get a "unified front" in the face of Netanyahu's speech and peace plan. In other words, he wants to make sure that the Arab states support his rejectionist position and don't sell him down the river, by doing inconvenient things like telling Western news agencies that they are sick of the entire Palestinian Arab cause and want him to accept a deal already.

The PLO put out a statement saying that they are the only representatives of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon and that they have no desire to encroach on Lebanese sovereignty. In other words, the PLO is trying to maintain the illusion that they care about their own people while they promise not to ask Lebanon to allow Palestinian Arabs to become citizens, preferring that their people remain stateless and second-class citizens forever.

Saeb Erekat told a delegation that 40% of the "settlements" are empty. So is he saying that "natural growth" isn't a problem because there is so much free space in the settlements?

Hamas stormed a social services organization north of Khan Younis and confiscated computers and other equipment. In other words, Jimmy Carter's friends are acting in a supremely humanitarian way, as usual.

Police in the West Bank arrested a man for practicing "witchcraft" and defrauding clients. When will the Western world ask the PA to take the same responsibility with their money?

Read More

Iowahawk's "Hail to the Victors"

I've been staying away from commenting on Iran, and now that I've seen Iowahawk's incomparable take on it, I'm glad I did.

A Special Message to the People of Iran

By Barack Obama
President of the United States

Greetings. As president of United States -- or, if you prefer, the Great Satan -- I have have been following with keen interest the vigorous post-election debate and vibrant political dialogue which has been taking place in your great and noble Islamic Republic of Iran over recent days. It has been both educational and fascinating, and as a sports fan I have thrilled to the pageantry, the suspense, and the fast-paced, hard-hitting action. I have to say It's been as exciting as a double overtime game seven NBA final between the Lakers and Celtics! Like millions of others around the world, I can't wait for the exciting conclusion of your distracting nail-biter so I can finally focus on my big health care project at the office. (Now that's what I call a real crisis!) But no matter who prevails in your hard-fought contest, you can rest assured that I will be out there in the stands watching, and ready to congratulate the team who brings home Tehran's coveted Golden Centrifuge Cup.

Read the whole thing.

Read More

Another Jew who doesn't get it

Ira Chernus, a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado, has published an article in Religious Dispatches called "Time for Jews to Abandon the Old Foundation Myth of Israel?"

The article assumes that Barack Obama's speech was a major impetus for Jews to abandon the "myths" of Israel, which he defines as

Our enemies threaten our very existence; we are wholly innocent, having done nothing at all to evoke such enmity; we will maintain our self-esteem and self-respect by inflicting enough defeats on our enemies to prove to them—and ourselves—our indomitable strength.

Chernoff offers an alternative, provided by the far-left Jews (he calls them "moderate") of "Brit Tzedek V'Shalom:

* Jews and gentiles have to live together; they are inextricably woven together in a single web of relationship, what Martin Luther King, Jr. called a single garment of destiny.
* Within that web, there will inevitably be both conflict and cooperation; cooperation is perfectly possible, so it pays to make serious efforts to promote it, which means being responsive to the changing concerns of everyone else in the web.
* There are rights and wrongs done on every side; it makes no sense to measure how much blame accrues to any one side, because finger-pointing blocks the way to cooperation.
* Self-esteem comes from promoting cooperation; if self-esteem must depend on showing one’s strength (an open question), the way to show strength is to show understanding of others, respond to their concerns, and find paths of mutual benefit.

As with all reasonable-sounding arguments, one has to realize what the underlying assumptions are and where they are wrong.

Let's start with his statement of the Israeli narrative "myths."

1. "Our enemies threaten our very existence."

There are two definitions of "threaten" - a threat that is existential or one that is verbal. There is no question that our enemies do indeed verbally threaten our existence, and anyone who claims otherwise is willfully blind - just visit MEMRI or Palestinian Media Watch.

As far as whether Israel is under existential threat at the moment, the answer is probably not. The reason has everything to do with Israeli strength and nothing to do with the peaceful intentions of Israel's enemies. Any objective look at history shows that Israeli concessions have not increased its enemies' desire for peace; quite the contrary - and this applies to Egypt as well.

2. "We are wholly innocent, having done nothing at all to evoke such enmity"

This is a lazy straw-man argument. Very few Israelis would say that Israel has never done anything wrong. But Chernus' framing the argument this way implies the far less accurate viewpoint that both sides are equally right and equally wrong - a very skewed view. If one side is 90% innocent and 10% guilty that does not mean that it should be treated exactly the same as the side that states even today that their ultimate goals is the destruction of the others.

3. "We will maintain our self-esteem and self-respect by inflicting enough defeats on our enemies to prove to them—and ourselves—our indomitable strength."

This is an odd projection, apparently of Chernus' upbringing in a typical American Jewish home during the 1960s and 70s. He is confusing understandable American Jewish pride in Israel with the supposed Israeli need for "self-esteem." It is also apparently the lynchpin of his entire view of the conflict - entirely the opposite of the truth. Israel's victories are not due to a need for self-esteem; they are because of a need for self-preservation. Israel reacting to rocket fire is not to bully Hamas; it is to stop Israelis from being traumatized by Qassams. If he doesn't understand this basic fact, he doesn't understand Israel at all.

But Chernus completely ignores the huge role that pride plays in the Arab narrative. He somehow assumes that Israelis have the same honor/shame culture that Arabs do. The Arab side indeed looks at the very existence of Israel, and its inability to defeat it militarily, as an open sore on its collective psyche. To ascribe that mindset to Israelis betrays Chernus' biggest blind spot.

He cannot distinguish between national pride and the desire to shame your enemies - something that the Arab world indeed cannot distinguish between but that Israelis cannot find any relationship between. For Israelis, winning a war is a reason for pride, but pride is not a reason for waging a war.

Now we can look at Chernus' alternative myths, framed as if it is diametrically opposed to his initial assumptions of Israeli myths:

" Jews and gentiles have to live together; they are inextricably woven together in a single web of relationship, what Martin Luther King, Jr. called a single garment of destiny."

It is unclear what Chernus is implying. Jews and Arabs live together in most Israeli cities. Jews live together with non-Jews in many cities worldwide. Who is saying anything otherwise? Does he think that most Israelis are Kahanists?

"Within that web, there will inevitably be both conflict and cooperation; cooperation is perfectly possible, so it pays to make serious efforts to promote it, which means being responsive to the changing concerns of everyone else in the web."

Again, is there anything in Netanyahu's speech that implies otherwise? Why is this being stated as an opposition to what most Israelis believe?

"There are rights and wrongs done on every side; it makes no sense to measure how much blame accrues to any one side, because finger-pointing blocks the way to cooperation."

The fact that there are rights and wrongs on every side does not imply that each side is equally right. These words sound soothing but they only work when both sides have a real interest in working things out - when one side is only interested in taking without giving anything in return, and the other side takes the attitude Chernus describes, the negotiations become a surrender. Israel cannot become a doormat in order to placate the Chernuses of the world. He would better spend his time trying to talk to Mahmoud Abbas - who already has said he is not interested in negotiations at all and would rather wait for Israel to be pressured to give him everything for free.

"Self-esteem comes from promoting cooperation; if self-esteem must depend on showing one’s strength (an open question), the way to show strength is to show understanding of others, respond to their concerns, and find paths of mutual benefit."

Again, Chernus clearly doesn't understand that the role of self-esteem is close to meaningless to Israelis in making policy decisions. He doesn't get that Israel's strength is a reason for self-esteem, not a result of the quest for it. If selfish pride was as important an Israeli attribute as Chernus believes, then Israel would still be holding onto Gaza and South Lebanon.

There are many American Jews who just don't understand the dynamics of the Middle East and, with the best intentions, believe the underlying myths that Chernus falls victim to: that both sides are equally to blame, that illogical pride drives both sides, that both sides are equally interested in real peace, and that both sides have the same mindset. Chernus would be better served to examine the truth of his own set of assumptions before pretending to understand Israel's.

Read More

ACLU upset over US shutting down terror "charities"

From Al Arabiya:

Across the United States Muslim charities are being shut down, raided or questioned under terrorism finance laws that give the government unchecked power and creates a climate of fear that is stopping American Muslims from carrying out one of their fundamental religious duties, an advocacy group said Wednesday.

"Broad and vague" terrorism finance laws, expanded by George W. Bush's administration, allow officials to target Muslim charities based on "secret evidence and without notice," the author of an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report published on Tuesday told Al Arabiya.

The report described how the laws also target donors, who are being unfairly prevented from giving Zakat, obligatory charity donations that are one of the five pillars of Islam, due a climate of fear created by law enforcement intimidation.

Freedom of religion is being “trampled on,” said Jennifer Turner, author of the report.

I can't speak about whether the US is acting appropriately in closing down a small number of purported Islamic charities.

What I can say is that, according to many Muslims, money given to terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah is indeed considered "zakat" and fulfills the obligation that Muslim have to give to what they term charities.

And the ACLU is completely wrong in implying that any US government actions are preventing Muslims from giving zakat, as there are no doubt many Islamic charities who do not give money to terrorists and which are tax-exempt under US laws.

For the ACLU to say that closing down some questionable charities somehow impinges on Muslim abilities to give to charity altogether is such an amazing twisting of the truth as to make one suspect anything the ACLU says.

The fact that Barack Obama appears to believe Muslims when they say that shutting down these charities somehow impinges on their ability to fulfill their religious obligation betrays a deep, and troubling, naivete.

Read More

Sheikh Salah: Netanyahu building Third Temple

The last time we saw Sheikh Raed Salah, he was claiming that Israel is building a subway to the Temple Mount.

He also constantly tells anyone willing to listen that the Jews are building tunnels under the Temple Mount, building synagogues on top of it, and doing other dastardly deeds to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock. He'll make anything up as long as (a) he gets headlines, and (b) gullible Muslims will believe him.

Now,he is saying that Binyomin Netanyahu is ready to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount.

Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, spoke Wednesday afternoon in front of Muslim students at Haifa University and warned them that Benjamin Netanyahu was intending on completing his plan to gain control of the Temple Mount, which he said the prime minister had tried to do during his first tenure.

The Islamic leader, who was invited to speak by the IQRAA students' organization affiliated with his movement, briefed the students on the history of his movement and on the criminal proceedings taken against him and his people several years ago.

He noted that he had rejected the Shin Bet's offers to agree to concessions in Jerusalem. "We love life, our families, our homes and our children, but if they suggest that we give up our principles and holy sites, we would rather die and we will welcome death."

Salah claimed that the government continued constantly to dig tunnels under the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque, and that Netanyahu was planning to complete during his current term what he did not complete during his first one – "to dig additional tunnels under al-Aqsa and rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount."

The Muslim students responded by chanting, "Allahu Akbar" (God is great).

That's funny - if I heard that Netanyahu was building the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, I'd also say "God is great."

(h/t EBoZ)

Read More